Page 109 of Broken Ties (Rixon High 4)

CHAPTERTWENTY-ONE

Poppy

The night had been a disaster.

We’d arrived at the bar full of excitement and anticipation, only to get caught up in a fight. I’d tried to grab Sofia and pull us out of the fray and ended up getting inadvertently smacked in the face by some drunken idiot.

I hadn’t told Aaron that part.

Not with how murderous he looked when he noticed the bruise.

As if that wasn’t enough, the second we’d gotten out of the chaos, Sofia had gone down like a sack of bricks.

So much for girls’ night.

“Nice place,” Cole said as Peyton let us into her and Xander’s apartment.

It must have been weird for the guys. He’d been their assistant coach last year, and now he was living with our friend.

But I’d never seen Peyton happier.

“Thanks,” she said, throwing her keys on the sideboard and kicking off her heels. “Kitchen’s through there. Make yourselves at home. I need to pee.”

Cole and Ezra moved down the hall, Sofia trailing after them. I went to follow but Aaron grabbed my hand. “Hey,” he said. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” I yanked my hand away and hurried after them.

I hadn’t expected to see him tonight, and now everything felt wrong again. Under different circumstances I would have run straight into his arms and soaked up the feel of him wrapped around me. But there was a vast ocean between us now, polluted with broken hearts and shattered dreams.

“Poppy,” he called after me but I didn’t look back.

I couldn’t.

“Here.” Ezra handed me a bag of frozen peas when I reached them. “It’ll help with any swelling.”

“Thanks,” I said, wincing as I pressed it to my face.

“I can’t believe you went out to some bar and ended up in a fight.”

“We weren’t in the fight, jerk face.” Sofia glowered at Aaron. “We were caught up in it.”

“You called Xander?” Peyton burst into the room, anger rolling off her.

“He’d want to know.”

“Jesus, Aaron, that wasn’t your call,” she snapped. “I would have told him.”

“We should go,” I said.

“Yeah. That’s probably a good idea.”

“Will you be okay?”

“I’ll be fine. Xander is more pissed at the bar for not carding us. He’ll get over it. I’m sorry it wasn’t the night you’d hoped for.” Her gaze flicked past me to Aaron.

“I’m sorry we talked you into this. It was a bad idea.”

“All the best ideas are.” She winked, pulling me in for a hug. “We’ll hang out soon, okay. And a little bit of advice,” her voice dropped to a whisper. “Give him hell.” A secretive smile played on her lips as she left my side to go hug Sofia.

---